Turn Around - You'll Find Me There
by whereisthefreakingnalu
Summary: Modern Neighbors AU. In which Gray and Juvia have a Taylor Swift "You Belong With Me" house set-up, and Natsu skips that whole part to climb into Lucy's bed. Nalu and Gruvia. T for cursing.
1. Gray 1

Their houses are right next to each other, and Gray can literally crawl through his open window into Juvia's house if he wants, not that he ever gets the urge. Also, he has horrible luck, so he'd probably fall through the two foot gap between their rooms and plunge to his death, or to break a few bones, seeing as they're on the second floor.

So whoever designed their houses was fucking stupid, but that's okay because he knows Juvia kind of well now.

And, well, they're not _Natsu and Lucy_ close – the two live in the houses across the street, which are designed the same way. Gray still remembers Lisanna, who used to live in what is now Lucy's house, and how she and Natsu used to be best friends.

Gray and Juvia are a little past that stage, he thinks. Or maybe they aren't, but he thinks that their path of friendship is going in a different direction, so he can't really be sure.

They're definitely not like Natsu and Lucy, though. Apparently Natsu has this thing about becoming best friends with the cute girls that move in to the house conveniently next to him and occupy the rooms that very nearly share a window with his. The thing is, however, that his creepiness level has maximized with Lucy. It's been proven that he often crawls into her bedroom and spends more time in there than he does in his own. He even supposedly sleeps in Lucy's bed with her at night – Lucy's complained about it a lot.

It's funny how she hasn't, y'know, _closed her window_ on him. And then there was that time when Natsu collapsed in bed after basketball practice instead of going over to her room, and she allegedly climbed into his bedroom and ordered him to scoot over so she could clamber onto his bed, admitting that she couldn't sleep without him anymore in the form of an angry rant that blamed Natsu for being an idiot.

Gray knows this is fact because Natsu wouldn't stop bragging, and Lucy's face turned the color of the flamehead's extra-spicy noodle soup.

So, _no_, he and Juvia aren't that close. Not that he wants to be. Nope, not even a little.

Although he's pretty sure he saw a doll of himself on her bed, which was more than a little creepy.

Actually, he's pretty sure Lucy wouldn't even consider having a doll of Natsu… you know what? He probably should stop thinking of Lucy near Juvia. She can probably sense it using her not-at-all amusing or cute stalker powers and come rushing in, rambling about her "love rival."

Speaking of which, he's thinking this while Loke is over at his house so that they can play CoD, aka Call of Duty or The Best Game Ever or Terrible Mainstream Shit Gray Shouldn't Own, and Juvia has just walked into her room and her hair is down today – it's wavy and he likes that better than when her hair curls up weirdly at the end. He doesn't know why she bothers trying; he knows it takes her longer to style it that way but it looks better when she doesn't so why does she even do it?

Anyways, he can't be caught staring or Loke will never stop laughing like the dickhead he is, so Gray turns back to his game and begins designing a new Custom option because _fuck_ how does he not have one with BAL-27 in it? Except he can't remember which custom label he can replace due to its suckiness… was he using Custom 2 when he got knifed by Loke for the bajillionth time?

That's when he hears Loke making some sort of a strangled choking noise, so he turns around to see him openly gaping at Juvia's window.

"Hey, what do you think you're-" He breaks off mid-sentence as he sees Juvia peeling off her shirt, leaving her in nothing but her bra and skirt. Loke makes some sort of an unidentified gurgling noise.

Gray's face flushes red because _what-the-actual-flipping-fuck-is-she-doing?_ and he sprints to his window like he never quit cross country, leans over the edge, and screams, "Juvia, CLOSE YOUR FREAKING WINDOW NEXT TIME" before slamming his own window shut, panting because that was the most exercise he's done all day.

Lyon, the sorriest excuse of a brother ever, busts into his room like he's on some cop show and Gray's half-expecting him to say, "Put your hands up!" except all Lyon says is, "Did you say Juvia? What happened with Juvia? Did something happen with Juvia? JUVIA?"

Man, what a let-down.

"Get out of my room!" Gray screams like the brat he is, or maybe more like Ultear – and oh, look, speak of the devil; she's right there and she looks _pissed_ – as he pushes Lyon out of the doorway, which proves to be somewhat of a challenge as he's flailing to reach the window.

"Shut the fuck up!" screams Ultear, knocking them both swiftly to the ground. "I was doing chem homework, but guess what? I couldn't because_some little kids were having an actual freaking catfight_, and God, Gray just let Lyon have your freaking room so he can stalk that weird girl in peace and we can actually have some semblance of quiet in here!"

"Yeah, Gray!" chimes in Lyon, but Ultear twists his arm painfully. "Ow, ow, 'Tear please," cries Lyon in pain, and ha! He deserves it.

But Lyon remarkably morphs back into his cool, composed, and I-haven't-seen-or-heard-of-Juvia-recently state, and he draws up enough of his dignity to say, "I didn't know texting your new boyfriend counted as doing chem homework."

Ultear drags him out of the room kicking and screaming to his inevitable death. Gray thinks it was a noble sacrifice, and God bless him for having at least one moment of awesomeness. Even though they're atheist. Whatever.

Meanwhile, Loke seems to have recovered from the whole accidental spying thing, and he pushes his glasses smoothly up his nose and smirks like he hasn't just been spluttering like some idiot. "So…" he drawls, his eyes shining with evil intent, "You get that view often?"

"That's it. Get out of my house."


	2. Natsu 1

It's not like Natsu is stupid… he just doesn't _try._ Okay, well, he tries sometimes, and when he does, he puts his all into it. The thing is that school is boring and books are boring and studying makes his head hurt.

It's been two hours since he sat down before his math homework and all he has managed to do is learn how to balance his pencil on his nose for 5 seconds, devour a plate of sandwiches drenched in hot sauce, and chase Happy around his room.

He must've started working (if you'd call it that) around four because it's already six in the afternoon and Lucy's light is clicking on. She's got this funny lamp with glittering stars hanging from it that it makes her whole room glow gold; her blinds are down but the light shines through and Natsu jumps up in excitement, hurtling towards his window and flinging it open so that he can easily push up her broken window that can't be locked and wiggle in under the blinds.

He immediately falls onto Lucy's bed, stationed perfectly under the window to catch him, and Lucy sighs in exasperation instead of screaming in shock and terror like she used to.

He can tell it's been a long day for her at work because she doesn't even try to scold him, just grabs a change of clothes and slips into the bathroom to change out of her waitress outfit. When she gets back out, she immediately settles down at her desk to write something, but he's not sure whether it's her novel or one of her letters that he knows he should never interrupt, so he flops onto his back and waits. When she folds the paper and lays it in her locked drawer, he knows the answer before he sees the sad smile on her face, so he pulls her onto the bed next to him.

She lets out a huff of irritation before curling into him and mumbling, "I have an English essay to write."

Natsu frowns at her deadened words and says, "Why do you sound so sad if you like writing?"

She grumbles as his arm shifts so his elbow digs into her ribs, and she wriggles a little until they're both comfortable again. "I just don't feel like it today."

"I have math homework," admits Natsu, propping his chin up on her forehead, but she immediately jerks away with a scowl and yanks on his ear. "Ow! Luce, stop!"

"No, I know what this is! You haven't done any and you need help! _This_ is why you need to pay attention in class," she hisses, but her victory is short-lived as Natsu easily bats her hand aside and scowls stubbornly.

"But the teacher is so boring! I just fall asleep at his voice…"

Lucy facepalms and immediately begins trying to shove Natsu out of her window. "Get your homework _now_ or else I won't help you!" she demands as Natsu laughs.

"I'm going, Luce, don't kill me," he says. "By the way, did you get fatter?"

He's forcibly ejected from her room at once, and she slams her window shut after him, but Natsu isn't perturbed because, _hey_, the lock's broken; he can go in any time. So he just gathers up his things (with Happy clutched in his arms) and clambers back into her room. He's met with a furious yell that _no, _she is _not_ fat; if anything, she's been getting skinnier because he's been eating all of her food!

Natsu laughs and Lucy relents and they work on his homework until Lucy absolutely has to start on her essay. Without Lucy's guidance (basically, now that no one's supplying him with answers), Natsu immediately just gives up on the rest of his work in favor of faceplanting on her unbelievably soft bed. Happy curls up on the pillow, and by midnight Lucy kisses him on the cheek before half-heartedly crawling over him to sleep on the side of the bed with the wall so she won't fall off and steals all the blankets as revenge for his snoring.

He doesn't notice, anyways; he only has enough energy left to press a messy kiss to the left of her nose (she cringes and complains about his lack of coordination) before passing out.

* * *

><p>"I can't believe you think Erza and Jellal are closer than we are!" complains Natsu, in the middle of trying to keep a pencil on his nose for fifteen seconds now; yep, he's a total overachiever.<p>

Lucy's scowling because he's contradicting her and she was supposed to be having a sleepover with Levy when he interrupted. She'd known this was going to happen and warned Levy beforehand, but _still._

"They've known each other since they were kids!" argues Lucy. "And they'd do anything for each other; remember that time Erza was almost hit by a car and Jellal pushed her out of the way? He was hospitalized for two months!"

Natsu frowns petulantly, the pencil falling from his nose. "I'd do the same for you, Luce!" he proclaims, flailing his arms. "We'd do anything for each other, too! And they're just _regular_ neighbors! He can't even climb into her room! That's _lame_!"

"_No, _that's _nice_!" says Lucy, jabbing her finger into his chest. "Jellal probably isn't eating Erza out of house and home!"

"Nuh-uh, 'cause I'm helping you so you won't get any fatter!"

With a strangled cry, Lucy tackles him and starts trying to punch him, but all it does is make Natsu laugh as he puts his hands up to cover his face. Levy's cracking up in the corner and Lucy's _mad_. "Natsu, get out!" she screeches, shoving him towards the window.

Almost immediately, his personality takes a 360 turn as he launches himself at her, hugging her around a leg and crying, "Don't leave me, Lucy!"

Lucy grumbles and settles back down, Natsu is smug, and Levy has an evil smirk on her face. They all sleep on the floor in sleeping bags and Natsu wriggles into Lucy's because he feels like cuddling and she's like the best cuddler ever, so yeah. She mumbles something along the lines of him not snoring or she'll Lucy Kick him and presses a sloppy kiss on his chin, as per tradition. He kisses her on the forehead and they sleep in the overly heated, cramped sleeping bag.

In the morning, Lucy and Levy watch TV shows as Natsu sleeps some more. In the afternoon after Levy leaves, Lucy and Natsu migrate to Natsu's house to babysit Wendy while Igneel and Grandine are out, even though that's a joke because Natsu is way more of a child than Wendy will ever be.

Lucy makes soup for dinner and they watch it on the couch by the television so they can have a Disney marathon that Natsu protests vehemently to. It's a losing battle anyways, because Disney films are practically Lucy's life blood and Wendy eats the stuff up. Lucy props her legs up on Natsu's lap and shares a blanket with Wendy as Natsu screams at the TV, seemingly energetic until he just burns out like a candle and collapses, snoring.

Lucy is forced to haul him up the stairs and onto his bed before tucking in Wendy. Instead of going back home, she shuffles back to Natsu's room, kisses him on the forehead, and collapses in his bed.

He rolls over and drapes an arm around her waist, drowsily pressing his lips against her temple, and promptly falls back asleep.

* * *

><p>When they go to school the next day, Lucy screams bloody murder as they're met with school walls papered with pictures of them curled up together, asleep. Embarrassed, she fumes for a moment, wondering how this could've happened, before screeching, "Levyyyyyy!" and taking off.<p>

Natsu surveys the plastered walls, ruffling the back of his hair and beaming with pride, before heading towards an unsuspecting Gray. "Come fight me, ice prick!"


	3. Gray 2

You know you're screwed when:

1. You've got a big partner project in History.

2. You can't choose your partner.

3. Your partner goes by the name of Natsu Project-Ruiner Dragneel.

(Exceptions include: Lucy and Erza.)

* * *

><p>Gray Fullbuster is having an awful day. Natsu is by his side, being an idiot, and <em>godfuckingdamnit<em> if he could've chosen his partner for his semester finals in History, it probably would be – well, not Natsu.

Well, actually maybe. You see, everyone wants to partner with Levy because she's practically a certified genius, but _no way in hell_ is that going to happen with scary-ass Gajeel in the background, lurking over her shoulder with glowing red eyes like the ones you see under your bed at night. Not that Gray's ever been afraid of monsters under his bed – only pansies are scared of things like that. (If you tell_ anyone_, I'll freaking rip your arms off.)

He'd probably try to partner with Lucy, seeing as she's pretty smart, too (and rational, unlike some people), but she'd probably partner with Levy or Natsu, depending on whether Natsu has a chance to flying-tackle her before she and Levy reach each other.

If Loke hasn't found some pretty girl to partner with, Gray would work with Loke, but this is rarely the case. Erza is freaking scary, but she'd be an okay partner. Too bad she always works with Jellal.

He _would_ work with Juvia, except Lyon always manages to ambush her. Which did not make anyone happy. At _all_. Not even Gray.

Well, last option: Cana. While he and Cana get along great as long-time friends, she's always either drunk or buzzed, so… not such a good partner.

If all else failed (and, for some reason, it often did), he'd somehow be stuck with Natsu.

But, this time, he's _mad_. He didn't even have a chance to try for a better partner who won't somehow make the project burst into flames (Nobody's sure how Natsu managed it, but he did. He set Gray's beautiful ice sculpture _on fire_.).

And how the fuck did those lucky _shits_ Sting and Rogue end up working together, _again_?! In fact, looking around, everyone has a good partner but him!

Juvia and Erza, Cana and Lucy, Levy and Jellal, Lisanna and Jet, Warren and Fried, Bixlow and Evergreen… nobody else seems ready to pummel their partners in the face!

Why in the world is Mr. Macao so bad at pulling names out of a basket? He's not a good teacher, anyways, so why's he still teaching? He already shows up drunk to class for fuck's sake, _and_ he makes no effort to hide the booze by his desk. Speaking of which, why in the world does he still drink when he has a son? _Fuck_, did Natsu just hit him with a spitball? _At point-blank?!_ Not cool. Not-fucking-cool.

The best way to tell an idiot like him that his behavior is worthy of an asshole is to sock the sucker in the face. So that's what Gray did.

Silence falls over the classroom, only to be broken a second later as Natsu immediately jumps to his feet, a crazy grin on his face. "Let's go, stripper!" he cackles, lunging forward.

Of course, this is all normal. Macao chuckles, reaching for some booze, only to jump in surprise when he realizes it's missing (on a completely unrelated note, Cana has magically conjured up a bottle of booze that looks exactly like the one Macao is looking for, except it's almost empty). Lucy darts forward, hugging Natsu's back to restrain him.

Erza is upon them a second later, brandishing a dangerously sharp pencil in their faces threateningly. "No fighting on school grounds!"

Her expression scares Gray more than playing Five Nights at Freddy's alone in the dark only to have Loke or Lyon (two of the biggest assholes in his life have first names starting with L – coincidence?) jump out at him like the idiots they are. Except he can sock them in the face, but he can't hit Erza without sustaining major injuries.

Luckily for him, Mr. Macao, having discovered the culprit to The Mystery of the Missing Booze was none other than resident drunk Cana Alberona, begins tearing apart partners in order to separate Natsu and Gray while partnering Cana with Erza to prevent any more alcohol thefts, for the time being at least.

Gray gets Juvia as his new partner, which is nothing short of a miracle. It'll be easy to communicate with each other, seeing as they're next-door neighbors, and they're somewhat compatible, he thinks. (Cana tells him this, too, whenever they hang out, except she says it with a suggestive smirk.) He's tried talking about Juvia-Gray compatibility with Juvia herself once, just as casual conversation, except – and here's the kicker – she _melted._

Okay, so she didn't completely melt into, like, a puddle of Juvia-ness, because that would be fucking gross and more than a little disturbing. But he's not sure how else to describe her half-slump, half-faint.

If they were in a cartoon, he thinks she'd have hearts in her eyes.

Just to clarify: he doesn't find it cute. He's pretty sure of this, no matter what Loke sniggers as they're having their weekly CoD match.

Anyways, unfortunately for Lucy, she and Natsu have been deemed suitable partners by the old drunk passing himself off as their teacher. Gray sort of expects Lucy to scream in horror and anguish, but all she does is blush beet red and start telling off a giggling Levy for something-or-the-other. He thinks he gets it, but it makes no sense because Natsu is an idiot and a loser. Girls, Gray decides, are extraterrestrial beings that he will never understand.

Natsu is pleased with this development, as he begins blabbering to Lucy in joy - Gray doesn't really hear what he says because he's too busy being confused as Lisanna, who's sitting next to him, nudges him with a happy giggle of, "Isn't Nalu _so_ cute?"

She's moved back and it's weird that she's faded into the background of Natsu's life as a close friend; they're still disgustingly close, but Natsu is stuck to Lucy like glue. Or a mosquito. Yeah, like a blood-sucking mosquito.

He's thinking of this, so he doesn't have time to respond to her puzzling question (what in the world is "Nalu"?), but he does notice when her face pales and she starts scooting away from him.

"What's wrong?" he asks her, not quite understanding until he sees Juvia standing over him with a crazy, I'm-going-to-kill-you kind of stare directed at Lisanna.

What is he supposed to do in this sort of situation?

He's about to say something super well-thought out, like "Uh, Juvia?", except Natsu is yelling at him again from across the classroom, a super-embarrassed Lucy trying to shrink at his side.

"Luce and I are going to beat your fucking ass at this project, Ice Princess!" calls Natsu, a shit-eating grin taking up his whole face.

"Bring it on, Flame Brain!"

War has just been initiated, and Gray is ready to win.


	4. Gray 3

Gray finds Cana out in the back hallway by some of the lesser-used classrooms that no one remembers the purposes for; it's the hallway known for being inhabited by hermit-like teachers that don't really care about what the students do.

She's running some kind of a betting system, her trusty booze bottle in hand, and she's asking the students in front of her, "That's twenty dollars on Nalu turning real in three months?"

The students debate for a heated minute before nodding furiously. Cana texts this to the real brains of the operation – fellow senior Mirajane Strauss, Lisanna's older sister – who chooses to run the tallies instead of most of the dirty work in order to keep her part in the system "anonymous," even though everyone knows it's her and no one in FTHS (Fairy Tail High School) cares that the Vice-Principal of the student board is getting involved in student affairs in a less-than legal way.

Sighing, Gray seats himself by Cana's side, causing the students to glance at each other and scurry off like he's going to say something they don't want to hear.

Cana cackles as she counts the four five dollar bills and tosses back a swig of booze. With a crooked smile, she turns to Gray. "Hey, what's up?"

"Nothing much. Nalu means Natsu and Lucy, like, as a couple?"

"Yeah," clarifies Cana. "Took you this long. How'd you figure out?"

Gray shrugs, accepting the bottle as Cana passes it to him and wincing as he takes a sip. He's no lightweight, but he doesn't want to get buzzed during class, so he passes it back even though he's barely drank any. "Lisanna was talking about it. And, last time I checked, you _were_ running a relationship system, weren't you?"

"Smart boy," Cana says, just a little slurred, and tries to ruffle his hair. He pushes off her hand, scowling.

"Shit, Cana, don't make my hair look any worse than it already does," he complains like a little kid, but Cana laughs it off easily.

"Have you figured out what Gruvia is?"

Gray turns to look at her disbelievingly. "No freaking way. There's a couple name for _me and Juvia?"_

Cana laughs. "Well, she's made it pretty obvious she wants to bang you, ya know. And you're not doing a good job of convincing everyone you're sexually retarded."

"What?! I'm _not_ trying to-"

"Anyways, didja know some people are betting on you and Natsu?"

Gray splutters. What the actual fuck are these people on? "Why in the world would anyone think that?" he asks.

"Your little arguments _could_ be passed off as sexual tension," responds Cana with a lewd grin and fluttered eyelashes.

"Fuck no!"

"Fuck yeah! It's called Gratsu, can you believe it?"

Gray groans, burying his face in his hands. "No, Cana, you're killing me here."

"Don't worry about it, kid. More people are for Gruvia and Nalu, anyways. Or _Gralu_, for you and Lucy," she adds with a curved smirk. Cana is getting a big kick out of this. Gray can tell; it's like he's got this sixth sense when it comes to Cana getting sick satisfaction out of making him suffer.

It wasn't always like this. When they were kids, she used to be the shyest, nicest person _ever_. And now look; he should probably regret their friendship.

"But nobody bets on me," Cana pouts. "Am I really that unmatchable?"

Gray snorts, "Maybe it's because you keep sleeping around with random people. Or maybe you're intimidating everyone by being the one collecting the payments."

"That must be it!" Cana says, grinning brightly. "Here, you collect the money for today. I'll tell everyone and you tell me who bets on me!"

"What? No! That's a horrible idea!"

"Here, take my phone to contact Mira. Give me yours; you already know my password and I know yours. Swear you won't go through my texts, pictures, social media, or anything, and I won't violate your privacy. Do you think anyone will pay for fortunetelling if it's not Tuesday?"

"I dunno. Everyone's already used to you running shop on Tuesday and bets on Thursday. Anyways, this is a fucking awful idea; I don't know how to run this thing!"

His arguments are futile. Cana leaves him with a pat on the back and an empty bottle of booze. For some reason, he wishes it were full.

* * *

><p>Students who head toward him look shocked first, then awkward. A lot of them back away when they see him sitting there.<p>

He wants to bang his head against the wall, but every time he's injured, Juvia goes batshit crazy. So, instead he contents himself with cursing Cana to the best of his capability. Unfortunately, he doesn't know how to use voodoo dolls; maybe he can ask Juvia to make one, seeing as she knows how to make dolls of people.

Or does she only make dolls of him? He's not sure if that thought is more creepy or pleasing.

* * *

><p>At the end of the day, Cana has her results: three bets for "Baccana," one bet for her and Hibiki, and one bet for "Grana." It's not the outcome she wanted.<p>

But Gray feels far more defeated than her. Today, there have been no Gruvia bets (Why is he disappointed? He'll figure it out soon, hopefully.), and, even worse… someone betted for Gratsu. _In front of his face_.

Cana pats him on the back. "I'm sure it was because the people who ship Gruvia are nice enough to not bet for you when you're sitting right there," she says.

It doesn't make his experience any less awful.


	5. Natsu 2

Lucy is convinced it's his fault.

Natsu is sure it isn't.

Okay, so they were kicked out of the library and got detentions. It's not that big of a deal; detentions are commonplace (for him, at least), and the library is overly quiet and stuffy and _boring_, anyways.

But every time he brings this point to Lucy's attention, she begins to turn all red like an Atomic Fireball and gets all mad at him for "getting them kicked out." Pfft, no way it was his fault. If it was anyone's fault, it was the library's for having such wobbly bookcases. They're lucky he didn't try to test their flammability, which is what he really wanted to do.

And, as an added bonus, he managed to nearly squish that dark-haired nerd that was flirting with (talking to) Lucy earlier.

Nerd was fine, however, as he'd been standing one inch away from where the bookcase had fallen. He would've been fine even if the bookcase had fallen on him, Natsu argued. After all, he (referring to Natsu himself and not Nerd) had only attempted to crawl on a _half-empty_ bookcase and Lucy had yanked him off before the wooden frame had fallen.

The librarian hadn't agreed.

Unfortunately, Lucy hadn't agreed either.

"Could have killed Ryan… Getting banned from the library for _a week_, how will I survive… Levy's going to be _so_ mad when I miss our weekly library meeting… Lost my reputation with Mrs. Dubose, who didn't used to hate me like she hates everyone else… What if we have to pay charges… Even worse, what if I get sued_…_ Ryan could have been _crushed_…"

There – she brought up that Ryan guy again! "Who's Ryan?"

"My friend Ryan! The person you almost murdered, you… you jerk!"

Natsu blinks. "Oh, you mean Nerd!" he realizes. "He wouldn't have been killed, Lucy."

Lucy sputters. "Well, you never know!"

"Having couple issues, I see?"

Natsu turns, confused. "Huh?"

Face flushing red, Lucy frantically shakes her head so that her hair smacks Natsu's arm. It actually kind of stings. Stings is a weird word, Natsu thinks. Stings. Stiiiings. Stiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnngggggggssss.

"No, Mirajane, it's nothing like that!"

"Nothing like what?" What had they been talking about again? "Aren't we supposed to order?"

They're in the coffee shop near the high school, frequented by many of their friends and various other students. Mirajane was the usual barista, sometimes accompanied by Kinana or Lisanna.

Lucy loves their Passion Fruit Iced Tea. Natsu mostly just flops around in confusion and ends up ordering a "Spicy Hot Chocolate" that isn't really spicy at all. That was okay, though, because Mirajane knows he likes his orders extra-hot and with extra spice, which sorta makes up for it.

Mirajane smiles secretly to herself. "Oh, we weren't talking about anything, really," she says, throwing a big smile in Lucy's direction (causing Lucy to blush furiously). "The usual?"

"Yep! Luce, I brought money this time!"

Half-expecting her to roll her eyes with a "Finally," Natsu's delighted to see a smile overtake Lucy's face as she ruffles his hair and praises him: "Good job, Natsu! I'm so proud of you!"

She must've really wanted him to bring his own money, which he virtually never does.

Pleased with himself, Natsu slams the money down on the counter. "I'll pay for both of us this time, Mira!" he announces with a big grin.

A beat of silence passes.

Lucy's happiness melts away. Her fingers wrap around his arm and squeeze tightly in a death grip as Mirajane giggles to herself, a hand covering her mouth ("Ara, ara.").

"_You need more than two dollars to pay for drinks, Natsu_," scowls Lucy. Natsu blanches as she lets go of his arm, her hand moving up toward his face.

"No, Lucy… don't…!"

His protests are lost as Lucy yanks harshly on his ear.

"This is what you get for getting my hopes up!"

"Ow, ow, Luce stoppit, stahhhp!"

But there's no stopping Lucy now. She begins to rant in that weird way of hers again, in short, breaking-off sentence fragments as Natsu flails desperately. "Thought you could finally fend for yourself… I thought you remembered you need money to pay for things!... Been going to the same coffee shop with the same order for _a year_ now… Still can't believe you don't… Such an idiot… You're buying me dinner again!"

In the background, Juvia shifts from foot to foot, hesitantly watching their "conversation" in apparent discomfort.

"Uh… could Juvia order now?"

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So I've had an attack of the dreaded _writer's block_ which is currently kinda still ongoing. I'd hoped that it would be cured as I wrote this, but I'm not sure if it worked. I apologize for the suckiness of this chapter which may or may not be because I wanted to finish it and had no idea where I was going. It's kinda short.**

**I'll try to update sooner, if, y'know, my writer's block goes away.**

**K so bye.**


	6. Gray 4

It's Lyon's birthday tomorrow and Gray is fucked.

Like, he hasn't forgotten his brother's birthday. He just… hasn't gotten around to buying the actual present yet.

In a last ditch effort to avoid shopping and all that, Gray patiently waits until Lyon leaves on a Juvia-stalking mission and begins frantically pounding on Ultear's door; she's home from college due to the fact that it's winter break and Ur wants the whole family back for Christmas.

Ultear screams, "Stop pounding on my door! I have important things to do!"

Gray ignores this and yells back, "Did you get a present for the shitface?"

"Yes, and you're not sharing _my_ credit! It's your fault for forgetting to get him a present, Grouch!"

Gray scowls at the use of his old nickname, which is totally uncreative and stupid and _no_ he's not a grouch. Sort of.

He hears a loud sigh from the other side of the door and Ultear opens it, her expression calculating. He thinks she's trying out a new lipstick, because he's pretty sure her lips haven't been fire-engine red before. Normally, he wouldn't have noticed because he doesn't really care about that stuff, but that is the most bright-ass color he's ever seen in his entire life.

He opens his mouth to tell her it looks fugly as revenge for her refusing to share Lyon's present, but Ultear grumbles, "I'll take you to the mall."

It's not a good deal at all, because going shopping is what he was trying to _avoid_, but this may be the nicest thing Ultear's said to him since he hit puberty. His shock makes a suspicious scowl slide on his face.

Ultear pinches his cheek. Hard. "Stop looking at me like that, Grouch. I'm trying to be a nicer person, and it's hard enough without you making that constipated face all the time."

So Gray sucks it up and accepts her deal, even though he kinda likes driving and also he doesn't want to go shopping, especially not with Ultear.

They don't say much on the car ride there, because Ultear has gone and changed "for the better" and Gray hates change and what does he say to her now?

He almost says something at some point, but when he looks at her, her eyebrows are drawn in and her lips are pressed in a thin line. He can tell that she's super pissed because some idiot crossed in front of her without signaling first, and it suddenly dawns on him that she hasn't honked once or even mumbled a single curse word and all of a sudden he's scared because he _kindasortamaybe_ doesn't know how to deal with her when she's acting even a little bit different.

They get to the mall and they're just wandering around when Gray sees Gajeel, and, like, what the fuck is Gajeel doing at a mall? The dude looks like he scrounges for his clothes out of trash cans, and also he does not look very happy to be there. At all.

Ultear's inspecting the mall directory thing to find good shops for Lyon, so Gray has time to subtly eye Gajeel and snicker to himself, imagining him sniffing around trash cans.

That is, until he sees Juvia run up, hug Gajeel quickly, and thrust shopping bags upon him while chattering excitedly about something – he thinks he hears the word "Levy" somewhere in there. Gajeel grumbles, but his face softens at the mention of the girl everyone knows he has a crush on. Sighing, he pats Juvia on the head. Juvia laughs and pushes his hand off with a smile.

Gray's eyes widen. _Oh_. He knows those two are close, because if anyone in the world besides Juvia called Gajeel "Gajeel-kun," they'd get their heads bitten off on the spot. But that doesn't make it any less weird to see proof of their friendship in person. He openly gawks like he's watching a zoo attraction.

Juvia rushes off to some other store, dragging Gajeel behind her like a giant lump of metal.

At that precise moment, Ultear turns to Gray, squinting, and asks, "Hey, Lyon likes girly stores like Abercrombie and Fitch, right?"

Confused, Gray stumbles over his words for a moment before mumbling, "I'm not getting Lyon any of that shit."

Ultear rolls her eyes and turns back to the directory. "Then what're you gonna get him?"

Gray stuffs his hands in his pocket, thinking. "Uh… all he's _really_ obsessed with is Juvia."

"Then why're we at the mall? Just take a picture of her or something."

"But he already has those."

There's an awkward silence as the two take in Lyon's weirdness and make eye contact in a way that clearly screams, "Our brother is a total creeper."

They decide on getting Lyon some kind of a stupid gag gift, because, as Ultear says, "He's not expecting much from you, anyways."

In the end, they buy some shitty-looking scarf that's striped light gray and the fucking ugliest shade of green-blue that Gray has ever seen, and he normally _likes_ that color. He'd protest to giving the horrible thing to anyone besides Lyon.

Ultear forces the shopping bag upon Gray ("I basically chose the present, plus you need to learn some chivalry, Grouch."), and he handles it awkwardly, considering that there's a half-naked male model on the front striking some kind of a super-embarrassing pose. Just holding the it has made his masculinity drop at least 30%.

They end up having to return to Abercrombie and Fitch (yeah, they actually went there) because Ultear reminds Gray with a snort that he's just as half-naked as the male on the shopping bag and he realizes he must've left his clothes in the store.

They waste time loitering outside of the store, arguing because neither of them wants to go back in and risk choking to death on the perfume that's contaminating the air. In the end, Gray charges in, frantically searches for his misplaced clothing items, and dashes back out with his lungs screaming for air.

As they're finally leaving the store, they crash right into Juvia, with Gajeel in tow.

Immediately, a deadly aura surrounds Juvia as she glares right at Ultear. "Who's this?" she demands, releasing Gajeel.

Oh, right. She's heard stories of Ultear, but they've never officially met because Juvia moved in just as Ultear left for college.

Ultear coolly raises an eyebrow at Juvia, who's much shorter than her. "What's up with your tone?" she asks, already pissed. She's probably seen Juvia through Gray's window once or twice, especially with Lyon going all insane and stuff, but she has a big issue with other people's attitudes (which is a little ironic), so she probably doesn't give a flying fuck who Juvia is anymore. As soon as Juvia turned a glare on her and opened her mouth, Ultear's bitch mode was activated.

Gray can literally see the figurative train he's on, and it's headed straight for Fucktown.

"'Tear, let's go," he says lowly, subconsciously undoing buttons on his shirt.

Ultear slaps his hand off of his shirt buttons. "Get your shit together, Gray," she says, calmly. Her glare doesn't leave Juvia. "We're in public."

"Don't talk to Gray-sama like that!" blurts Juvia, and Gray can faintly hear Gajeel snort in the background.

"I can and _will_ talk to Grouch here however I want to," replies Ultear, dismissively. "Go find yourself someone else to immediately target with your hatred and go pester them."

Gajeel growls quietly, his eyes narrowing. "Let's leave, Juvia. It doesn't even fucking matter."

But Juvia's far too persistent. "This woman insulted Juvia's Gray-sama!"

Ultear rolls her eyes. She turns to Gray, seemingly not concerned with Juvia anymore. ("Have you seen my cloak?") She starts walking and Gray basically has no choice but to follow.

Juvia seethes as he leaves. He'll explain everything to her later; he's sure she'll understand. Maybe. He might wanna say something before she attempts to murder Ultear, because Ultear's even more of a ninja than Gray and will fucking _take her down_ no matter how strong he knows Juvia is.

Briefly, he wonders if Natsu ever has to deal with stuff like this. Probably not; his relationship with Lucy seems pretty uncomplicated (invade her personal space, get yelled at, apologize, hug, repeat).

He and Ultear stop at the food court for cold lemonade, and they both suck on the ice cubes, because Ur used to do it and she influenced them in the weirdest ways possible.

On the car ride back home, Ultear keeps glancing at Gray. Finally, when they're stuck in traffic, she says, "Sorry."

"For what?" he asks, confused.

"For being a bitch to you," clarifies Ultear. "I'm trying to get over that."

It's such an unexpected thing. He never would've imagined Ultear apologizing for something like that. "Oh, it's fine," he says honestly. "You're my older sister, so it was sorta… expected?"

Ultear shrugs with a smile. "Thanks, I guess."

"Well… I'm sorry for being an asshole and an arrogant little shit," admits Gray.

His words make Ultear laugh out loud. She turns in the driver's seat, ruffles his hair, and says, "Don't worry about it, Grouch. It gives you individuality."

This makes Gray snort and suddenly they're both laughing and that's okay (no, _great_) because maybe this happy feeling is the reason Ur likes having the whole family together during the holidays and bonding and shit.

It's funny how Gray never thought about it before, but… it's a nice feeling, having a sister.

* * *

><p><strong>Random note: Apparently spell-check thinks "Abercrombie" is "beachcomber"?<strong>


End file.
